News
Global Screen picks up London-set drama BAGHDAD IN MY SHADOW
Feb 19th, 2018
Swiss production powerhouse Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduction and German world sales company Global Screen announced Global Screen has picked up international rights for BAGHDAD IN MY SHADOW. The film, currently in postproduction, is directed by Samir, whose previous documentary "Iraqi Odyssey" (2014), premiered at the Berlinale and at TIFF, and was the Swiss entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. The deal was negotiated between producer Joël Jent and Dr. Anke Beining-Wellhausen for Global Screen.
BAGHDAD IN MY SHADOW is a gripping English-language tale set in London, in a cosy café where 35-year old Amal works. She left Baghdad to get away from her violent husband. Her closest friends at work, the elderly writer Taufiq, and Muhanad, a closeted gay IT specialist, are all expats. They’re still caught in their past, yearning for freedom. Egged on by by a Salafist preacher, the writer’s nephew attacks his uncle and turns everyone’s life upside down…
Director Samir’s track record also includes acclaimed documentary "Forget Baghdad", Locarno competition entry "Snow White" and the drama "Always & Forever".
Julia Weber, Head of Sales at Global Screen, states, "The topic of BAGHDAD IN MY SHADOW is totally trending right now. The international subject matter is ideal for world sales and the international festival circuit. Samir shows how various ways of life, traditional and modern, Western and Arab, collide in a little cafe in the middle of London - an explosive mix, staged with a lot of empathy."
Taufiq is played by acclaimed actor and professor at the University of Baghdad Haytham Abdulrazaq. Zahraa Ghandour, hot off her feted performance in TIFF entry "The Journey", plays Amal. Other cast members include Kerry Fox ("Intimacy", "Bright Star"), Meriam Abbas ("Homeland"), Ken Bones (Ridley Scott’s "Exodus - God and Kings"), Daniel Adegboyega ("Transformers - The Last Knight", "Gone", "James Bond - Skyfall"), and Felix Scott ("Inception").
BAGHDAD IN MY SHADOW is a Swiss/German/UK co-production. It is produced by Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion in co-production with Coin Film (Cologne, Germany) and Ipso Facto Productions (London, UK).